John McCain gave a stirring, maybe even moving, speech to close the Republican Convention, but the whole thing brought to mind a story my dear departed Daddy, a life-long Democrat, often told about the woman who was married three times and was still a virgin. Her first husband was a much older gentleman, and on their wedding night when she emerged in her negligee, he had a heart attack and died. Her second husband was an alcoholic and was incapable of consummating the marriage. Her third husband was a Republican, and all he did was sit on the side of the bed and talk about how good it was going to be.

John McCain was the epitome of that Republican as he stood there before a cheering right-wing crowd and appealed to a beleaguered American middle and lower class to just give his party one more chance to get it right. He wanted us to know that the Republicans were going to be really good this time. He even went so far as to perform an act of contrition by noting that the Republican Party had gone to Washington to change it but instead were changed by it. The statement fell upon silence in the hall as the “angry right” didn’t begin to get what he was talking about.

McCain had absolutely nothing new to offer the vast left-behind people of this country. He tried to conceal this fact by carefully turned phrases such as: “If you’ve lost your job, I will stand on [sic] you but stay out of your way.” So as he tried to convince the hurting masses out here in the real world that he would help in some way, he simultaneously reassured his fellow Republicans that it would not be the business of government to do so. In fact, he rallied his base by stating that he was going to make sure government stayed out of their way.

He made an impassioned promise to improve education in this country, but immediately went down the same road that Republicans have been trying to get us onto since segregation was ordered by the Federal Courts: school choice. While this “choice” sounds like a good thing, it is simply code for closing down public schools by cutting off their funding. He was also going to accomplish this by freeing the schools from the tyranny of teachers unions and “reward the good teachers and help the bad teachers find another job.” As one who spent fourteen years as a teacher, it was my experience that what school administrators considered to be the best teachers in the school had a direct correlation to how much kissing up was done by a particular teacher. I taught at the community college level, and I have student evaluations to lay beside my “performance evaluations” to illustrate my point. I never once had an administrator attend one of my classes. And by the way, I didn’t have the benefit of a teachers union when the “Education Governor” George W. Bush cut funding to community colleges in Texas eventually leading to the closing of several workforce programs including my own.

McCain also pointed out the tragic cases of several families he had run across while campaigning, people who had lost their jobs and the like, and he promised to “fight for them.” But he gave only one example of something he would actually do to help one of those families. That family had lost a son in the Iraq War, and all he promised them was that he would make sure their son didn’t die in vain. It was typical Republican/McCain rhetoric and position: we’re always looking out for the unborn and the heroic dead, but everyone in between the two will have to look out for themselves.

He pretended to offer relief from the staggering damage that an unaffordable healthcare system has wrought on our citizens and economy. He warned of the evils of a system that would guarantee access to all, stating that it would lead to “some bureaucrat standing between you and your doctor.” If McCain ventured outside the comfortable bounds of his government healthcare program, he would find what those fortunate enough to have some form of healthcare insurance already know: some clerk in your insurance company is standing in the way of you getting the healthcare you need! McCain didn’t lose his touch. He never had it to begin with.

Yet again John McCain showed without question that he just doesn’t get it. He still thinks the way out of this fix is to give yet more tax relief to big corporate America in hopes that they will shower the benefits down upon the rest of us and to protect big insurance’s stranglehold on the healthcare system of our country. His plea? Ah, c’mon, baby, if you’ll just give me one more chance, I’ll make it up to you.

It’s time for us to recognize the talk for what it is: talk. It’s time to throw the bums out and go with some real change. C’mon, baby, dump that old lying man and find someone who really cares about you.

Since we’re looking at talk, let’s take a look at Obama’s grandiose rhetoric. I for one love words, revel in their beauty and am seduced by their power. Obama shares this love of finely crafted phrases and uses them to great advantage. Unfortunately some of us expect the words to convey substance and Obama’s do not. We hear instead the tired old socialist diatribes eschewing personal responsibility while praising group think and collective responsibility. This last we understand to mean that no one is responsible for themselves because everyone is responsible for everything. We hear a clamoring for purity of process and the disparagement of results that do not emanate from a pure transparent process. Pure transparent processes are fine in the laboratory but in the political world few processes are neat, never mind transparent and pure. Politics is a gritty roll up your sleeves business best entrusted to honest people with cogent ideas and clear explicit principles to guide their actions. Feelings are irrelevant, clear rational analysis of the candidate’s positions and ability to carry through are the only relevant measurements of a potential candidate. We’re not selecting a date for the senior prom.

Liberals and socialists are always talking about the inherent fairness of progressive taxation. They conveniently ignore the facts. Progressive taxation destroys the engine that drives economic prosperity and progress by preventing creation of wealth. Taxes destroy wealth. Wealth is the source of prosperity for all members of a society. Wealth is the capital that creates jobs. Wealthy people spend the money that buys the goods that employ the rest of us. It isn’t a perfect system and some have more than they need but that is not a reason to confiscate it. Real change, in keeping with the American belief in the importance of the individual and the right of the individual to the fruits of their labors, would require the elimination of every current federal tax and replacing today’s repressive tax code with a simple single rate tax on economic activity. Every wage earner and retiree gets an immediate raise. Special interest tax breaks go away. The government saves millions and one of the most reviled and unamerican institutions in Washington, IRS, is closed. That’s change, American style.

Whatever! Your response is just more blah, blah, blah! I, too, like words, but they don’t fill an empty stomach. Your point about “tax fairness” is elitist to the max! It’s a purely fascist contention that assumes that the talent level of every person equals that of every other. I have observed over the years that some people have received great gifts that can lead to great rewards. Others, however, have not been so blessed. According to you, we should just let them die. Hey, Uncle Scrooge, get over yourself. I assume you are a man, because your breasts don’t seem to produce one single drop of the milk of human kindness. YOU’RE MEAN AND YOU SUCK!

About

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE MEDIA? That’s a question I’ll be asking frequently. This old retired white Texas Democrat is a political junkie with the time to constantly monitor the news media and point out who’s really fair and balanced.

It is the goal of this site to shine the light of scrutiny on the very influential national news media as it “does its thing” during the course of this very important election. The plan is to critique political commentary shows every day, concentrating on content and slant thereof.

* Definition of “bullshit”

In Texas where many people come from a history of farming or ranching, we have often been known to holler "Bullshit!" This is because we all know that if you're going to buy a load of manure to spread on your fields, you really want to make sure the manure comes from cows. Cow manure replenishes the soil and makes things grow.
But if you're not careful, a cagey rancher may substitute a load of bull manure. Bull manure is completely worthless as fertilizer. It has no nutritive value as far as your fields are concerned. So if you paid for cow manure, but you got bull manure instead, you got ripped off!
Thus, "Bullshit" is another way, albeit rude, of saying "worthless." When someone hollers "Bullshit!", they are accusing someone of ripping them off or lying to them.